Table of Contents
Document Summary
The RecTrac League module allows you to create leagues, populate them with teams and players, generate schedules, track scores, post league standings and track personal statistics as needed. You can manage multiple sports leagues. For Example. You might manage adult softball and basketball leagues, and also youth football and soccer leagues. You can generate regular season schedules or create tournaments (single or double elimination), if desired.
You begin by creating your leagues and defining when (date and time ranges), where (which facilities), and how many (teams and players are allowed).
You then register teams and players into the league. Most organizations handle the team registrations differently between adult and youth leagues:
- Adult Leagues – A coach (or other primary contact for the team) pays to register their team into a league through the Global Sales Module. The team is associated with the household who purchases the registration. Team rosters can be created before or after registration.
- Youth Leagues – Players register and pay individually to participate in sports. In RecTrac, youth sports are created as activities and sections within the Activity Registration module with the appropriate rules and fees. This allows system verification that the player meets the league criteria, such as age, gender, grade, and other rules that you might define. Parents may visit or call your organization, or use WebTrac to register their child for youth sports. Once the registration period is complete, you use the Activity Roster Upload to move those players into Teams within the League module.
This document will discuss adult leagues. Using WebTrac for online registration of youth leagues is beyond the scope of this document. However, the process for youth leagues is similar to any of your other programs: creating activities and sections, defining rules and fees, and making them available on WebTrac for an enrollment period.
RecTrac offers automated solutions for generating league schedules:
- Matrix Schedule Generator – Allows you to select the time slots for each game from a grid of possible choices generated by your league and facility selections.
- Auto Schedule Generator – Creates a league schedule based off number of games per team per day and per week.
- Manual Schedule Generator – Uses a template to create a schedule.
Note: Manual scheduling options exist as well, which the scope of this document does not include. If the scheduling options discussed here do not fit the needs of your organization, contact Vermont Systems Customer Support for information and assistance with manual schedule template creation and use.
Matrix or manual schedule generator can use a league template. The matrix will use the Vermont Systems default template if no template is specified. Essentially, a template is the pattern in which teams play each other in their league games (i.e., Game 1 = team 3 as home and team 5 as away). Depending on your needs you can use the Default Vermont Systems Templates, and may also create and manage your own templates for unique patterns. Templates are reusable for many leagues as templates do not specify team names, only numbers (team 1, team 2, and so forth).
Note: Vermont Systems strongly recommends against editing the Vermont Systems Default Templates, see the Change Vermont Systems Default Templates button on the League Template Management screen. Instead, create new templates.
Patrons who own the League Scheduling AND Pass Management modules can opt to track League visits.
License – Maintenance Agreement
The use of the League Module requires a Vermont Systems license and annual maintenance agreement for RecTrac and the component modules discussed in this document. Prior to implementing any process outlined in this document, please contact the Vermont Systems Sales department at 1-877-883-8757 to verify that you are authorized to use the League Module and if not, to obtain a quote and/or approval.
Setup Steps
This document will walk you through the basic steps required to create, schedule, and manage your Leagues through RecTrac. If you have additional questions about Leagues after reading this document, please contact Vermont Systems Customer Service by phone at 877-883-8757 or generate a Support Case through the Customer portal of the Vermont Systems web site using your Customer ID and password.
Before You Begin
This document is written with the following assumptions. If any of the items listed is NOT true, contact Vermont Systems Support prior to continuing.
- Your organization is running RecTrac 3.1.04.00 or greater.
- You (or the individual(s) setting up running/maintaining the League module) have a full understanding of how leagues are managed in your organization, to include but not limited to: the number of teams allowed per league, the number of players allowed per team, the facilities where games are played, how long (in hours and minutes) you allot for games to be played, regular season style of play, tournament style of play (if applicable), and etc….
- The User ID with which you sign into RecTrac has the requisite permissions and ability to access all modules and functions pertaining to Leagues, to include but not limited to: League, Facility, Activity and System File Maintenance.
- You understand Facility Maintenance and have created the facilities where your games will be played, to include Type, Location and ID.
- You understand RecTrac DataGrids and how to maneuver through them.
File Maintenance Setup
This document will guide you through the basic steps required to:
- Create a League
- Create a Team
- Register a Team Into a League
- Generate Schedules for a Season
- Run the Auto Schedule Generator
- Run the League Matrix Scheduler
- Update/Reschedule Games on an Existing Schedule
- Update Scores
- Enter Player Statistics
Additionally, this document provides descriptions for programs and utilities that are useful in managing your league.
Note: All file paths and screen/tab locations in this document refer to file paths and screen/tab locations as they appear in the standard, default Vermont Systems Design. Your setup and Design may vary.
Creating a League
In this section, you create new league(s), link facilities where games will take place, and define how to rank ties. You might assign exemptions when the team, league, or facility are unavailable for games. You can define referee requirements. Once established, a league can be used repeatedly year after year, such as Adult Coed Softball.
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Management. The League Management screen opens.
- Click Add. The League Update screen opens to the Core tab.
- Under Core Settings:
- Enter a unique League Code, Name, and Short Description. Codes may be alpha and/or numeric.
- Expand the Drop-down list to select the appropriate Schedule Type for this League:
Regular Season - The Schedule you generate will be for the regular season.
Single Elimination - The schedule you generate will be for a single elimination/knock out style tournament resulting in a single champion determined by which team never loses.
Double Elimination - The schedule you generate will be for a double elimination style tournament with a "loser's bracket" resulting in a single champion determined by the winner of the "Winner's Bracket vs. Loser's Bracket" final match.
- Click the Picklist icon to select the appropriate Season Code for this League. The value in this field (along with the year) is stored on any registration, league visit, miscellaneous posting, referee payment, or refund records that are created.
- Vermont Systems recommends being as accurate as possible when selecting Season Codes for your Leagues, as the processes of Archiving Leagues, Recovering Leagues, and Purging Leagues is dependent on a Season Code and Year.
- Enter the Year stamp for this League. Vermont Systems recommends being as accurate as possible when selecting Years for your Leagues, as the processes of Archiving Leagues, Recovering Leagues, and Purging Leagues is dependent on a Season Code and Year.
- Enter the number of League Games and Practice Games (if applicable) in their respective fields. These fields represent the number of games each team will play. For Example: Your Total Teams = 8 and you want each team to play every other team twice during the season. You also want a preseason consisting of two (2) games per team. You will enter ‘14’ in the League Games field and ‘2’ in the Practice Games field. The Total Games field will populate with ‘16’ automatically. ‘14’ League Games is derived at by multiplying seven (7) – the total number of teams any one of the eight (8) teams in the league must play – by two (2) – the total number of times each team must be played.
- Enter the estimated Game Minutes that you schedule per game for this league. This value, along with the Setup Minutes, if any, (Miscellaneous Settings panel) will be used when determining the amount of time required for facility reservations for your League.
- Enter the Max Players allowed per Team for this League.
- Enter the Total Teams allowed for this League.
- Under League Dates/Times:
- Click the Calendar Icon to select the Begin Date and End Date for this league. The scheduler will place this league into games only within this range of dates.
- Click the Clock Icon to select the Begin Time and End Time for this league. The scheduler will place this league into games only within this range of times.
- Under Tie Break:
- Use the Tie Break lists to determine how league standings (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc…) appear when teams have identical Won/Lost/Tied records. Determines team placement and seeding.
- Drag and then drop items from the Available to the Selected lists.
- Drag and then drop items up and down in the Selected list. Teams with identical records will be sorted in the order (top to bottom) that the tie breakers appear in the Selected list. You can add as many tie break criteria you want in the order that you want.
- Under WebTrac Settings:
- Accept the default value (Yes) for Display on Web or change it to No. This determines whether this league is visible where the public can access it.
- Accept the default value (date of 1st game) to begin displaying scores and rankings
- Under Miscellaneous Settings:
- Enter the Cleanup Minutes, the number of minutes required to reset your facility after a meeting of this League. This value, along with the Game Minutes (Core Settings panel) and Setup Minutes (if any) will be used when determining the amount of time required for facility reservations for your League. You can allow extra time before and after the game.
- Under Referee Settings:
- Enter a Referee Count, if needed. The League module will allow you to schedule referees when generating the League Schedule. If an association provides referees/officials for your games, there would be no entries here.
- If you will be using RecTrac to schedule your referees, link the appropriate Referee Qualifications to the league. Any referee who has the applicable Qualification(s) linked will be eligible when scheduling this league. (To link qualifications to referees, go to Management • Activity Management • Staff Management and see to the Qualification Links field).
- As with other RecTrac Modules, you can enter the Fees, Rules, Questions, and Comments on their respective tabs. These fees, rules, and questions generally apply to team registration into a league and NOT player into a team.
- Click the Facilities tab. In order to schedule games for your League, it must be linked to at least one (1) facility. You may link as many facilities as needed to a league. When you create the schedule, in-house facility reservations for the linked facility/facilities will be generated automatically.
- Click Add Facility. The League Facility Link Update screen opens.
- Click the Picklist icon to select the Facility you wish to link. The Facility Combo Key consists of the Facility ID, the Facility Location, and the Class.
- Click the Calendar icon to select the date on which you with to begin and end using this facility for your League games. The Begin Date you enter should be the first date on which games for this League will be scheduled at this facility. The End Date you enter can be the last date for which games for this League will be scheduled OR you may opt to a later date to account for any make up dates that might be needed.
- When linking facilities, consider allotting time for an additional game on certain days of the week. Doing so will allow you to schedule make up games if necessary (i.e. for rainouts, postponements, etc…). When generating the schedule, you can skip time slots but they will remain available should you need them. See Maintaining Your League below.
- Enter up to two (2) begin/end time for League activity for each day of the week for a facility. For Example: If the same league used this facility on Saturday from 2pm to 5pm and again from 8pm to 11pm, you would select 2:00pm in the Saturday Begin Time 1 field and 8:00pm in the Sat Begin Time 2 field.
- Click the Clock icon to select the first Beginning Time for this day of the week that this facility will used by this league. If this facility will not be used on this day of the week, leave all Begin/End Time values blank.
- If one-time block only is required for reservations for this facility, enter time values in the Begin Time 1 and End Time 1 fields for this day of the week only. Do not enter Begin/End Time 2 values if they are not needed.
- Click Save.
- Repeat this process when the league can play at multiple facilities.
- Click the Exemptions tab. The League Update Exemptions screen allows you to enter the beginning and ending exemption dates and times that a league, facility or team cannot be scheduled for play. You may create a separate record for any number of exemptions that apply. You must create the exemptions before generating your league schedule.
For Example: You might have an evening softball league that plays every Thursday night, with games starting at 5:30pm and 7:30pm. One of the teams is made up of United Parcel Service employees. Because these players cannot usually make 5:50pm games, you could assign a Team exemption from 5:30pm - 7:00pm for the date range of your league. This would ensure the UPS team plays only the late game because it would not be scheduled for the early game.
Note: You can create an unlimited number of exemption records per League, if desired. However, each exemption you add increases the probability that conflicts will arise during the scheduling process as the system attempts to accommodate each exemption record. In the event a schedule cannot be completed due to too many exemptions, the system will ignore the exemptions and re-create the schedule with teams scheduled for games regardless of their exemptions.
- To add an exemption:
- Click Add Exemption. The League Exemption Update screen opens.
- Click the Calendar icon to choose the date for this Exemption.
- Click the Clock icon to select the Begin and End Times for which you are creating the exemption.
- If you leave the time fields blank, the exemption will be created for the entire day.
- Expand the Drop-down list to choose the Exemption Type:
- Facility - If you are creating an exemption for the facility to which this league is linked. The facility will be unavailable for scheduling during the times entered on the day selected.
- League - If you are creating an exemption for the entire League. No league play will occur during the times entered for this day.
- Team - If you are creating an exemption for a Team within the league. The team will be unavailable for play during the time entered for this day.
- Click the Picklist icon to select the Facility/Team you wish to exempt.
- If this exemption repeats, click the Picklist icon to select Consecutive days or weeks.
- If choosing Days, an exemption record will be created for each day from the Starting date through the number of days entered.
- For Example: Start date = 04 January and goes 21 days. An exemption record will be created for 04 Jan, 05 Jan, 06 Jan, etc… through 25 Jan.
- If choosing Weeks, an exemption record will be created every seven (7) days from the Starting date through the number of weeks entered.
- For Example: Start date = 04 January and goes 8 weeks. An exemption record will be created for 04 Jan, 11 Jan, 18 Jan, etc… through 01 March.
- Enter the Interval of days/weeks to repeat this exemption.
- Click Save.
- After teams are registered and a schedule is generated, the Schedule and Teams tabs will display that information. The Email Features tab provides for automatic email generation to your staff for certain Transaction Types, such as a registration, cancellation, cancellation with waitlist, when league has reached full enrollment, and schedule changes. The Statistics tab allows for the setup of individual player statistics, such as points per game.
Creating Teams
Associating a Team with a Household
In this section, you will select a household and create a team within in. Team rosters can then be entered. Often the coach or another primary contact is the household you will use.
Note: Once a team is established within RecTrac, you may register that team into multiple leagues as needed.
- In RecTrac, go to the Home Ribbon • Global Sales.
- Select the Household that are associating this team. The Global Sales screen opens.
- Click the League Teams tab.
- In the League Teams DataGrid, click New Team. The League Team Update screen opens.
- You are on the League Team Update tab.
- Enter the Team Name.
- Enter the contact phone, email, and address for the Primary Contact of this team. Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
- Click the Team Members tab.
- Expand the Drop-down list to select the Team Members you want to see in the DataGrid.
- Default Team Members - Team Members that are "by default" members of this Team whenever it registers for a League. Once a team and its members are defined within a household, it is easy to register that team in multiple leagues. For Example. You might have the same team register each adult softball each year. Alternatively, the team might register for softball and baseball.
- <x> League(s) - Members on this Team for the selected League only.
- Teams in RecTrac can consist of Default Members and League Members. The assumption is that Default Members will be on the Team regardless of the League for which it registers and that League Members will be on the Team only for the single specified League only. The Default Player Copy Option on your Daily Processing profile • Miscellaneous Information group determines whether Default Members will be added to the Team when it registers for a League (All) or whether players will be added individually to the Team after the fact or as a result of a Team Upload (None).
- The DataGrid lists the team roster.
- Use the DataGrid and the buttons below to update your roster.
- Use the buttons to Add Team Member, Delete Team Member, Change Team Member Info, and Change Question Answers.
- Click Save.
- Click the Linked Documents/Waiver History tab to attach any needed documents.
- Click Copy Default Players to have the system copy your default players to a Team/League selected in the Show Players for field. This is a good option to use when a new Team registers for its first League. You can create the Team and register it for your League. Then create the default players and use this button to add them to the League for which they registered.
- Click Save. You return to the Household Update screen and the new team is now available.
Activity Roster Upload
The Activity Roster Upload program allows you to automatically create teams and players in a League from a selected Activity or Activity Section that has active enrollments. This option offers an easy solution for populating Leagues where participants sign up as individuals as opposed to signing up as a Team. This process creates Teams in your League and populates those Teams with players. There is no Team Registration process in Global Sales or in WebTrac. When using this program the processing assumption is that players pay their League Registration Fees when registering for the Activity. The Upload process simply creates Teams in your League puts the players onto them.
For Example: You offer a Girls Basketball League. In RecTrac, you create an Activity for Girls Basketball and you link registration Fees. You also create a League for Girls Basketball without Fees. Girls who want to join the League register and pay for the Activity. After the enrollment period ends but before League play starts, you run this program to assign girls to their Team in your League using the Upload Method that best matches your intent (i.e. Balance Age, Balance Skill Level, Balance Features, etc…; these options are discussed in detail below). The Upload process creates the Teams in your League and populates them with players from the AR Roster.
Note: Depending on your Upload Method, you may have to visit Household Management and link Feature Codes to the individual enrollees prior to running the Upload. Optionally, you can use the Assign Features/Revise Players button to do this in bulk.
- In RecTrac, go to the League Management Ribbon • Activity Roster Upload. The Activity Roster Upload screen opens.
- Expand the Drop-down list and select the method by which you wish to upload rosters to your League. The option you select is primarily dependent upon how you create the Activity and its Sections in order to populate your League(s) with Teams. Two example scenarios are outlined below, but ultimately your options are practically unlimited.
- Activity - All rosters from all sections of the Activity you select will be uploaded to the League you select. For Example: You have a single League for which you wish to add multiple Teams. You create one (1) Activity with one (1) Section and use all the enrollments from that one (1) section to populate the Teams in your one (1) League. Your League is 'Soccer.' Activity 100100 is 'Soccer' and it has one (1) Section only (01). You run the Upload and create multiple teams based on the enrollments in to Section 01.
- Activity/Section All rosters from the single Section you select will be uploaded to the League you select. For Example: You have multiple Leagues based on certain criteria (Age, for example) for which you wish to add Teams. You create one (1) Activity with multiple Sections based on the same criteria you're using for your Leagues (i.e. Age). When running the Upload, you use Activity/Section, and you run the Upload as many times as you have Sections and Leagues. Your Leagues are 'Soccer 5-7,' 'Soccer 8-10,' and 'Soccer 11-13.' Activity 100100 is 'Soccer, and 'Section 01 is 'Soccer 5-7,' Section 02 is 'Soccer 8 -10,' and Section 03 is 'Soccer 11-13.' You run the Upload three (3) times, each time selecting the Section that corresponds to the League for which you want to add Teams based on age.
- Expand the Drop-down list and select your Upload Method. You CANNOT select multiple. The selection you make here determines how rosters will be uploaded to the League you selected.
- Section to Team - This option is available only if your Upload Method is "Activity." The upload process will create as many teams as you have Sections in your Activity and all enrollees in a Section will be placed on the same Team. This option presupposes your Activity has multiple Sections and that you want your League to have as many Teams as your Activity has Sections.
- Feature to Team - The upload process will assign enrollees with matching Feature Codes to the same team. Upon selecting this option, enter a Max Players per Team value and then make selections in the Feature List field. For Example: You might make a Feature Code for each school within your district (i.e. Washington Elementary, Adams Elementary, Jefferson Elementary, etc…). You would link the enrollees to the Feature Code that corresponds to their school. Then when you run the Upload, Teams will be created by School.
- Balance Skill Level to Team - When assigning enrollees to Teams, the upload process will attempt to create an average player skill level across all teams. Upon selecting this option, enter a Max Players per Team value, a Max Team value, and then make selections in the Feature List field. For Example: You might make a Feature Codes for "Expert," "Above Average," "Average" and "Beginner." You would link the enrollees to the Feature Code that corresponds to their skill level in the League. Then when you run the Upload, Teams will be created by assigning an equal number of skill levels to each Team (or as close an approximation as possible). So if you have four (4) Teams and four (4) enrollees have "Expert" skill level, then each Team will get one (1) "Expert." If you have eight (8) "Above Average" skill players, then each team will get two (2), etc….
- Balance Gender to Team - When assigning enrollees to Teams, the upload process will attempt to balance gender across all teams, so that each team will consist approximately of the same average gender. Upon selecting this option, enter a Max Players per Team value, and a Max Team. This option presupposes you assign Gender Codes to your Family Members.
- Balance Age to Team - When assigning enrollees to Teams, the upload process will attempt to balance age across all teams, so that each team will have approximately the same average age. Upon selecting this option, enter a Max Players per Team value, and a Max Team value. This option presupposes you assign Birth Dates to your Family Members.
- Auto Assign Players to Team - The upload process assign enrollees to team randomly. Upon selecting this option, enter a Max Players per Team value.
Notes:
Additional setup is required to use Feature Codes with Activity Roster Uploads. Family Member Feature Codes must be created in System Code Management, and a Family Member Feature Code must be linked to each enrollee in Household Management • Member Details. Optionally, you can use the Assign Features/Revise Players button to link Feature Codes to your players in bulk.
Regardless of the Upload Method you select, you always have the option to edit/revise/reassign players once they've been placed on a Team. The Assign Features/Revise Players button at the bottom of the screen provides for this.
- Click the Picklist icon to select the Upload Activity. This is the activity from which you wish to upload your rosters.
- Click the Picklist icon to select the Download League. This is the league into which you wish to upload the Rosters from the Activity/Activity Section you selected.
- Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
- Click Upload Players to run the Activity Roster Upload. The system will alert you when the process completes. Upon completion, your League will have the number of Teams you specify, and the Teams will have players from the roster of the selected Activity and/or Section.
Note: Players remain on the Activity Roster after running the Upload. The Roster Upload program does not run a cancellation or a transfer from the Activity. All enrollees remain on the Roster. To clear the Activity Roster, you will run the Activity Section Archive program at the end of the season, as you normally would.
- Click Assign Features/Revise Players, either before or after running the Upload, to continue to the Activity Roster Upload - Revise Players DataGrid. From there, you can assign features to selected enrollees, move and/or remove players from a team (i.e. you can adjust Team Rosters manually), update Questions, etc….
- Click Print Player Listing after you've run the upload to have the system generate a final listing of all of the players and their team assignments. The report lists the Team Number; and the player's name, age, grade, gender, and any Feature Codes.
- If you need to "go back and start over," click Init Team Players after you've run the Upload to "clear" all of the selected team members. For Example: If you used the wrong Upload Method, you could use this button erase team assignments and re-run the Upload.
Registering a Team Into a League
Teams are linked to a League via the registration process, either in Global Sales or in WebTrac (or both), as dependent upon your setup.
Note: If you are using WebTrac for youth leagues, then the process is the same as creating any activity and section, and making them available through your WebTrac. After the enrollment periods ends, refer to Activity Roster Upload.
Registering a Team into a League via Global Sales
A coach (or other primary contact for the team) pays to register their team into a league through the Global Sales Module. The team is associated with the household who purchases the registration. Team rosters can then be entered.
Note: Once a team is established within RecTrac, you may register that team into multiple leagues as needed.
- In RecTrac, go to the Home Ribbon • Global Sales.
- Select the Household that will be registering a team into the league. The Global Sales screen opens.
- Click the League tab.
- In the Leagues DataGrid, select the League in which you want to register.
- Select the family member who is registering the team.
Note: The person you select here is not stored in League records.
- Click Add to Cart.
- Continue with the standard Global Sales payment process to complete the transaction.
Generate Schedules for a Season
Once you have created your League and linked it to a facility (or facilities), you can run the Schedule Generators. Optionally, you can enroll/register teams (or upload Activity/Section rosters) into the league first and then run the scheduler. This is the preferred option.
Note: Vermont Systems recommends running schedulers after registration is complete.
RecTrac offers automated solutions for generating league schedules and/or tournament style brackets:
- Matrix Schedule Generator – Allows you to select the time slots for each game from a grid of possible choices generated by your league and facility selections. Enables you to schedule multiple leagues at-a-time.
- Auto Schedule Generator – Creates a league schedule based off number of games per team per day and per week.
- Manual Schedule Generator – Uses a template to create a schedule. If you are going through the process of creating templates, then you may want to use them in the manual schedule generator.
This document will cover running the Auto Schedule Generator and Matrix Schedule Generator.
Note: Manual scheduling options exist as well, are more labor-intensivem and are beyond the scope of this document. If the scheduling options discussed here do not fit the needs of your organization, contact Vermont Systems Customer Support for information and assistance with manual schedule template creation and use.
Regular Season Schedules
Regardless of the scheduling option you choose, RecTrac looks at the following when generating a schedule and creates the most balanced schedule possible. Once a schedule has been created, schedule maintenance allows you to alter/switch games as desired. When creating a season schedule, RecTrac looks at the following:
- Number of Teams in the League and, if odd, your Bye-Fill Game option.
- Whether games are Double Headers.
- Number of Total Games each team will play, practice and regular.
- Total Game Time, game minutes and set up minutes.
- The open and close times of the linked facility/facilities.
- Linked exemptions. Remember: you increase the probability for scheduling conflicts whenever you add an exemption to your League. If scheduling conflicts cannot be avoided, the scheduling software will ignore the exemptions in favor of completing the schedule.
Running the Auto Schedule Generator
The Auto Schedule Generator creates a league schedule based off number of games per team per day and per week.
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Schedule Management. The League Schedule Management screen opens.
- Click to select a League within the DataGrid. Click Auto Schedule Generator. The Auto Schedule Generator screen opens.
- Accept the default values for Start and End Dates (the league's beginning and ending dates), or change them as needed. The Auto Generator will generate game slots as dictated by the times allotted on your linked facility/facilities over the entire date range entered. If your date range is too broad, the Auto Generator will simply schedule the last game and stop. If your date range is too narrow, the Auto Generator will complete the schedule to the last date in your range and then assign games dates of 12/31/2099 for all remaining games, unless you enable the Automatically Extend League End Date option.
- Dates assigned to the Facility Links will override this date range. If you assign a date range when linking a facility, RecTrac will use those dates for that facility when generating the schedule.
- Accept the default value "1" in the Maximum Games per Team per Week/Day fields or overwrite them as necessary. The system will attempt to meet the threshold values you enter.
- Accept the default "0=First Available (No Scan)" Scan Option, or choose another option if desired. Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
- If you have only one (1) facility for this League, accept the default.
- If you have multiple facilities linked to this League, choose accordingly.
- Select the remaining options on this screen. Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
- Click Process.
- You might receive one or more prompts similar to the following.
- Set Flag For FUTURE AUTOMATIC REFEREE SCHEDULING?
- "Depending on the BEGINNING and ENDING DATES of the league, you MAY NOT have enough game slots available to complete the schedule. If this occurs, then the system will assign these games a PLAY DATE of 12/31/2099. If you do NOT want the system to create these play dates to complete the schedule, then answer YES to truncate round to fit the league date range." This message always displays and does not indicate a problem.
- There are only 4 teams linked to this league which is set for 8 teams. What would you like to do? You can Schedule With Open Games, meaning a schedule will be built for 8 teams, even though only 4 are available. You can Reduce League Team Count, meaning that the League will be updated to only have a maximum of 4 teams and the scheduler will only schedule 4 teams.
- The schedule is built and when complete, you will return to the League Schedule Management screen. You can now view and edit your schedule through your choice of the Maintain Schedule or Matrix Schedule Generator screens.
Preparations for the League Matrix Scheduler
Before you run the League Matrix Scheduler, verify that you have the following.
- Configure and set a SuperGrid Profile for League Scheduling. Often, this happens automatically, but not in all cases.
- Review the League Templates.
Configuring the League SuperGrid Profile
In this section, you will verify you have a SuperGrid Profile for leagues available and configured.
In order to use the League Matrix Scheduler, you MUST have a SuperGrid Profile created for use with Leagues. You MUST select that SuperGrid Profile in the League Matrix Profile field within your Daily Processing Profile.
Running the League Matrix Scheduler
The League Schedule Matrix screen allows you to use a graphical SuperGrid to create and edit schedules for one league or multiple leagues simultaneously. First, create Time Slots into desired time/day/facility blocks (referring to the Slots Needed and Slots Selected). Second, have the League Schedule Matrix generate schedules for the league(s). Third, refine your schedule. Use drag and drop to move games, team flip, and edit individual games, as needed.
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Schedule Management. The League Schedule Management screen opens.
- Click to select one or more Leagues within the DataGrid. Click League Matrix Schedule Generator. The League Schedule Matrix screen opens.
- You may receive one or more prompts like the following when opening the League Schedule Matrix screen.
- Are all Games Double Headers? Select Yes if you want the two paired teams to play two games back to back. In most cases, you will select No.
- If the League Matrix Schedule screen displays only the Initialize and Team Stats buttons, then one or more of the selected league(s) are scheduled. You can view the schedule. You can make changes by dragging and dropping games into different slots (see the Editing Your Schedule section later within this topic).
- !!!WARNING!!! The Initialize button deletes any prior schedule for the selected league(s) and prepares them for first usage.
- Use the Team Stats button to proceed to the Team Stats DataGrid. The Team Stats button helps you balance game assignments. Click this button to view statistical information about League schedule. It enables you to view which teams and games are played on specific days of the week, facilities, are head-to-head, home versus away, and in specific time slots. View the Days of the Week each team will play (i.e. Team 1 plays 10 games on Mondays and 6 games on Wednesdays, etc…), Start Times (i.e. Team 2 has 7 early games, 5 middle games and 4 late games, etc…), Facility Assignments and number of Home vs. Away Games.
- The SuperGrid displays.
- The following options are available above the SuperGrid, which enable you to limit or expand the data shown. The default SuperGrid values are based on those of the league or leagues selected, see the Core Information and Facilities tabs of the League Update screen.
- The following fields display above your SuperGrid.
- Accept the default value or click the Calendar icon to select an alternate Start Date to display. The default value is the league's Start Date when one league is selected, and when multiple leagues are selected the system will use the earliest Start Date of those selected. Dates display horizontally across the SuperGrid based on the selected Start Date and the Number of Days set.
- Accept the default value or click the Pick List Icon to select an alternative Number of Days to display. Dates display horizontally across the SuperGrid based on the selected Start Date and the Number of Days set.
- Accept the default value or click the Pick List Icon to select an alternate Start Time and End Time to display. The default value is the earliest facility Start Date associated with the league(s) selected.
- Accept the default value or click the Pick List Icon to select an alternate Time Block unit to display. The default value is the League's game length in minutes when one League is selected, and when multiple Leagues are selected the system tries to determine the game length as best it can.
- Click the Combo Box icon to select the facility Resources to display. Multiple selection is allowed. The SuperGrid can display one or more facility Resources where these League(s) can play.
- Accept the default value or click the Pick List Icon to select the maximum number of Resource Blocks (Facilities) to display for a day and time Slot within the SuperGrid. The default is the maximum number of facility Resources that the selected league(s) can play. For Example: The SuperGrid Options screenshot above displays the facility Resources Diamond #11 and the Diamond #12 for the Slot 6PM on 11/14. Selecting a value of 1 for Resource Blocks will display a maximum of one facility (it would show only Diamond #11) per day and time slot. Selecting 5 will display up to a maximum of 5 facility Resources for a given day and time Slot within your SuperGrid.
- Click the Combo Box icon to select the Days Included to display. Multiple selection is allowed. For Example: The adult softball league only plays games on Wednesdays and on Fridays. To simplify scheduling, you might filter your SuperGrid to display only Wednesdays and Fridays.
- Cells within your SuperGrid are color-coded.
- White - Are available date/time/facility combinations that you can place Time Slots.
- Light Yellow - Are Time Slots you have created within the SuperGrid (you MUST create slots before you can schedule games).
- Red - Are Booked for another event or game.
- Purple - Are conflicts between scheduled games.
- Green, Blue, Orange - Are scheduled games that list the team numbers playing (such as 1-4). Hover over the game for more information. The first league scheduled is green, the second is blue, the third is orange, and more colors are assigned for additional leagues.
- To create Time Slots, you have two options.
- Click to create Time Slots within the SuperGrid.
- Alternatively, specify a Begin and End Date range, and then click Create Time Slots.
- To clone Time Slots, enter the Clone to Begin and End Date range. Click Clone Time Slots.
- Configure and then run the scheduler.
The Leagues Module includes a default set of Templates that are used for the order team matchups occur (i.e., 1st league game consists of team number 2 at home versus team 7). By default, the Vermont Systems defaults are used. If you've created additional League Template, then you can select them when running this scheduler. For Example: You might have specific teams who are expected to play against each other in a preconceived order.
Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
- Click the Schedule Games button.
- After running the scheduler, you can refine your schedule through the following steps.
- Click on a Slot in your schedule to edit the Home Team and Away Team numbers (Home versus away status is initially determined by your League Template). Click Process to save the change.
- Highlight a Slot within your schedule and then the Move icon displays. Click and then drag the game to another available Time Slot.
Note: The Maintain Schedule program offers additional editing capabilities beyond those of the Schedule Matrix program.
- Optional. If you would like to swap the schedules of two teams, use the Flip option. The Team Flip Process will flip ALL the games for the selected teams.
- Follow this process to flip teams:
- Enter a team number into the two flip fields, and then click Team Flip.
- When working with only a single league, click Continue to process that change.
- When working with multiple leagues at a time, you must click the Pick List Icon to select the League to apply the changes. Click OK.
- The SuperGrid refreshes and the team schedules are now flipped.
Update/Reschedule games on an existing schedule
If games are not played due to weather or any other reason and you want to play them at a later date, you can change the status of those games from Normal to Reschedule. You can then reschedule those games to a future date.
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Schedule Management. The League Schedule Management screen opens.
- Highlight the League you want to reschedule.
- Click Maintain Schedule. The League Schedule screen opens.
- Click the Edit Pencil icon for the game you want to reschedule.
- Click the Status Pull-Down List to select Reschedule.
- Click the Done Editing icon to save your change.
- Close the League Schedule screen.
- You return to the League Schedule Management screen with the League highlighted.
- Click Reschedule Games. The League Rescheduling screen opens.
- Accept the default value for Start Date (one day after the last game scheduled for this league) or click the Calendar Icon to select another date.
- The List of Games to Reschedule shows the games that have a status of Reschedule.
- Click Add All to move all games from the Available to the Selected lists.
- Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.
- Click Process.
Scoring Games
The League module allows you to update scores and standings (and/or tournament game winners). Typically, this is done immediately after games have been played, but you can update scores and standings at any time. Once you’ve updated scores and standings, you can print and/or email League Team Standing reports (or updated Tournament brackets), as needed.
The scoring/sportsmanship program allows you to determine win/loss/ties by single game scores (i.e. one game, one score) or in match format (i.e. best 2-of-3).
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Scores Management. The League Scores Management screen opens.
- Highlight the League you want to score and then click Update Scores. The League Scores screen opens.
- The league's games display within a DataGrid, along with home and away fields for forfeit and scores.
- Highlight the game you want to score. Use the Stylus Icon or Change button to edit the game.
- Enter the game score(s) in the appropriate fields.
- If you play single game matches, enter the score in the Score 1 field.
- If you play multiple game matches (i.e. best 2-of-3), enter the individual game scores in the appropriate Score fields.
- If the score is 0-0, you will have to enable the Valid Score field manually to include the score.
- If one team forfeited the game/match, place a check in the Forfeit field.
Note: ‘Forfeit’ is a good option for schedules that include BYE games where ‘BYE’ is a team added to the League for purposes of displaying the BYE game on a team’s schedule (i.e. Team A vs. BYE).
- Clicking the Stylus Icon edits that game within the DataGrid. When done, click the Check Mark icon to exit 'Edit Mode.'
- Clicking the Change button opens the League Scores Update screen. When done, click Save.
- Repeat this process until you have scored all of the needed games.
- Click Update Record/Standingsto recalculate team standings within this league. League standings can be updated once games have been scored. Typically League Standings are updated weekly after all games have been played. Once you have updated League Standings, you can click run the VSI - League Schedule with Standings report, if desired. Updating scores also updates League Seedings.
Entering Player Statistics
The League Module enables you to track player statistics for up to nine (9) statistical categories within their League. For Example: A coed softball team might track the following three (3) statistics for each player in the league:
- Batting Average
- Home Runs
- Runs Batted In
Typically, player statistics are updated when you are scoring the games, however, can be updated at any time.
Before entering player statistics, you must meet the following prerequisites:
- Define the statistics to track for this league. In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Management. Select the League and click Change. Click the Statistics tab. See League Statistics for more details.
- Assign players to the teams in this league.
From a single screen, you enter the sum of this player's Attempts and Successes for each of the configured statistical categories (i.e., enter "Hits" and "At Bats" to calculate the player's Batting Average). Clicking Process calculates that player's statistical categories and then advances to the next player.
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Scores Management. The League Scores Management screen opens.
- Highlight the League you want to score and then click Update Scores. The League Scores screen opens.
- Highlight the Game you want to update player statistics and then click Statistics. The Player Statistics screen opens with first player in the first team.
- Enter this player's Attempts and Successes for each of the available statistical categories.
Note: The player's current statistics display for reference.
- Click Process to calculate and proceed to the next player.
- Repeat this process to enter the statistics for all players on both teams.
Creating Tournaments
The Tournament Creator copies qualifying teams from one or more regular season leagues into a new tournament league with proper seedings. Teams are qualified based on their scores during the regular season using the criteria you specify. Use the League Tournament Creator as a preliminary step in the creation of a single or double-elimination tournament.
The system handles the following scenarios:
- Tournament From Single Regular Season League – You have completed regular season and posted all scores for a league. At the end of the season, those teams play a double (or single) elimination tournament. Teams are copied to the tournament League with proper seeding.
- Tournament From Multiple Regular Season Leagues – You run three (3), softball leagues and at the end of the regular season you create an end-of-season double elimination tournament for the top two (2) teams from each league. This program transfers qualifying teams from these leagues into the tournament league with proper seeding.
To complete a tournament, you:
- Post all game scores for the regular season.
- Create a new league for the tournament. For Example: Your regular season league was Softball Coed, and you would create a new Softball Coed - Tournament league. (Easiest method is to clone the regular season league, adjust the name, change Schedule Type to Double Elimination, and then adjust the dates).
- Run this League Tournament Creator program, which copies teams from the regular season to the tournament league.
- Generate a schedule for the new tournament league using your choice of scheduler: Auto Schedule Generator, Matrix Schedule Generator, or Manual Schedule Generator.
To run the League Tournament Creator:
- In RecTrac, go to the Management Ribbon • League Management • League Tournament Creator. The League Tournament Creator screen opens.
- Specify the league or leagues to include in a tournament. You can select leagues using one or a combination of the following options (DataGrid, League Range, Wildcard, and League Begin/End Dates). When multiple selection options are used, it is additive. For Example: You might use a League Range to select consecutive league codes (SoftballCoedA, SoftballCoedB, and SoftballCoedC), and then the DataGrid to select a league with a non-consecutive code.
- Highlight/select individual leagues within the DataGrid, as needed. Multiple selection is allowed.
- Enable Use League Range to specify a range of leagues to include in the tournament, if desired. Click the Picklist icon to select the Begin League and then the End League.
- The League field is used with the Wildcard Option.
- Enter a range of League Begin and End Dates. This field includes records based on the dates during which the league plays. Any league with play dates anywhere within your Date Range will be included.
-
For Example: Your Date Range is 01 May 20xx - 30 June 20xx.
- A league beginning on 29 June would be included because the league takes place within your Date Range.
- A league ending on 02 May would be included because the league takes place within the Date Range.
- A league ending before/on 30 April would NOT be included because the league ends before your Date Range.
- A league beginning on/after 01 July would NOT be included because the league starts after your Date Range.
-
For Example: Your Date Range is 01 May 20xx - 30 June 20xx.
- Click the Combo Box icon to select the Category Code(s) by which you wish to filter. Multiple selection is allowed. Only Records that are linked to the Category/Categories you select will be included on the output.
- Enter one or more criteria that determine which teams are included in the tournament.
- Enter the Number of Top Teams From Each League to include in the Tournament.
- Enter the Minimum Win Percentage a team MUST have to be included in the Tournament.
- Enter the Minimum Sportsmanship Score a team MUST have to be included in the Tournament. Applicable if you enter sportsmanship as part of scoring. Sportsmanship can be used as a tiebreaker when ranking teams.
- Enter the Maximum Forfeits. A team must have less than this number of forfeits in order to be included in the tournament.
- Click the Picklist icon to select the resulting tournament league to copy qualifying teams.
- Select whether to Print Team Email on Report.
- Click Process.
Archiving Leagues
The League Archive program allows you to move current League information from an 'active' status to an 'archived' status, thus allowing you to retain historical data on your enrollments for reporting/statistical/administrative purposes while creating new, identical Leagues within RecTrac for future use. The information stored in the archive file will be maintained for as long as there is disk storage space or until it is purged from the system. Vermont Systems recommends keeping archive files for a minimum of three (3) calendar years.
Generally speaking this program should be used for Leagues with fixed beginning and ending dates, and it should be run just prior to the upcoming registration period for the League(s) in question. For Example: Men's Twilight Softball runs for eight (8) weeks in June and July every year, meeting every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30-9:00pm. You offer the League every year. In May, just prior to the registration period for Summer 20xx, you would run this program to archive "last summer's" Leagues. As a result of running the Archive a new Men's Twilight Softball League will be created on the fly. You would then use the Bulk League Update program to update registration dates, start/end dates, fees, etc.… for "this year's" offering.
The League Archive program can be run for a single League or a range of Leagues. It can also be run by Category, by Type, by Season and by Year or any combination of the above.
- In RecTrac, go to League Archive.
- Enter a Begin and End League range.
OR
Enter a League Wildcard, if desired. - Recommended: Enter a Season and Year in their respective fields. When a Season and Year are entered, only those Leagues within your range that have a matching Season and Year will be archived. Should you leave these fields blank, you run the risk of Archiving more Leagues than desired.
- Optional: Enter League Categories and/or Types, if desired. The League Archive program can be run for a single League or a range of Leagues. It can also be run by Category, by Type, by Season and by Year or any combination of the above.
- Select whether you wish to have new Leagues created as a by-product of the Archiving process.
- Create New Leagues - Creates an identical League and inserts next year's date automatically. This is good option when archiving "this year's" leagues and getting ready for "next year's" offering of the same program.
- Create New League/Keep Enrollments Based on Cutoff Date - Creates an identical League and inserts next year's date automatically. It also keeps roster entries based on an Enrollment Cutoff Date. Rosters with an enrollment date PRIOR to the Cutoff Date are archived. Rosters with an enrollment date AFTER the Cutoff Date are included in the new, identical League. This is a good option when archiving "last year's" leagues after enrollment has begun for "this year," as it keeps "this year's" rosters.
- Do NOT Create New Leagues - Runs the Archive process but does NOT create new Leagues for next year. This is a good option when archiving leagues you will not be offering again next year.
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When you roll Leagues to a new year, consider how you plan to advance the dates associated with Leagues (i.e., starting and ending dates, and dates associated with fees and rules). You have a few options: Use the League Bulk Change program, or you can use the League Date Options on this screen.
This field is applicable only if you are opting to create new Leagues as a byproduct of the Archive process.
Expand the Drop-down list to select your New League Date Option
THEN
Enter a Date Option Value, if needed.Regardless of your selection in this field, the system will increment the Year to the next available automatically.
- None - Select this option to keep the Begin/End League Dates the same for your new Leagues. The system will increment the year automatically to the next available. For Example: Your League Begin Date is 01 May. The End Date is 30 June. Upon running the Archive, the new League will use 01 May as the Start Date and 30 June as the End Date, and the year will be incremented automatically from 20xx to 20xy.
- Days Select this option to increase the Begin/End League Dates for the new Leagues by a number of days equal to the number you enter in the Date Option Value field. The system will add the number of days to the Begin/End League Dates and increment the year automatically to the next available. For Example: Your League Begin Date is 01 May. The End Date is 30 June. You select "Add Days" and enter "1" in the Date Option Value field. Upon running the Archive, the new League will use 02 May as the Start Date and 01 July as the End Date, and the year will be incremented automatically from 20xx to 20xy.
- Months Select this option to increase the Begin/End League Dates for the new Leagues by a number of months equal to the number you enter in the Date Option Value field. The system will add the number of months to the Begin/End League Dates and increment the year automatically to the next available. For Example: Your League Begin Date is 01 May. The End Date is 30 June. You select "Add months" and enter "2" in the Date Option Value field. Upon running the Archive, the new League will use 01 July as the Start Date and 30 August as the End Date, and the year will be incremented automatically from 20xx to 20xy.
- Years Select this option to increase the Begin/End League Dates for the new Leagues by a number of years equal to the number you enter in the Date Option Value field. The system will add the number of years to the Begin/End League Dates. For Example: Your League Begin Date is 01 May 20xa. The End Date is 30 June 20xa. You select "Add Years" and enter "3" in the Date Option Value field. Upon running the Archive, the new League will use 01 May as the Start Date and 30 June as the End Date, and the year will be incremented by three (3), from 20xa to 20xd.
- Click Process to run the League Archive program. Review your selection for accuracy and determine your print option for the by-product report. Click Continue to complete the process or click Cancel to return to the program and change information if needed.
- Repeat these steps to Archive other Leagues as needed, or Exit back to the main menu.
League Reports
RecTrac provides four (4) League Report programs that produce eleven (11) standard reports.
Note: Many of these reports (including rosters and schedules) can be emailed to teams and contacts. See the League Report Emailing screen for more information.
The League Registration Reports programs includes the following reports:
- VSI - League Cancellation Report
- VSI - League Registration Report
- VSI - League Team Roster
- VSI - League Team Roster with Guardian Info
- VSI - LS RecConnect
The League Setup Reports programs includes:
- VSI - League Master Schedule
- VSI - League Schedule
- VSI - League Schedule with Standings
- VSI - League Tournament Bracket
The League Team Report program includes:
- VSI - League Team Report
The League Officials Report program includes:
- VSI - League Officials Schedule
These report programs are run from the Reporting Ribbon • Report Listing • League group. Use the "i" and "?" Help icons Help Icons on the upper-right hand corner of the screen for field definitions, if needed.